This is a little story about how overcoming frustration and being a bit silly brought me to one of my proudest Zelda moments.
After being introduced to the Zelda series through Breath of the Wild, and playing through it a considerable number of times, I decided to take my first foray into an older Zelda game with Skyward Sword HD. I was so excited to learn more of the lore behind the games and the Zelda Timeline as a whole. So, starting out with, chronologically, the first game in the timeline felt momentous. The unique world building, unforgettable characters, and awesome mechanics such as the bird riding had me absolutely hooked. I reached the first showdown against Ghirahim in Skyview Temple within hours after first starting the game.
I breezed through the first three dungeons of the game very quickly, and continued to fall in love with the world and gameplay, such as the Timeshift Stones in Lanayru Desert and hunting for Goddess Cubes that led me to treasure. However, as I was laughing myself silly at Groose’s chaotic descent to the surface and his attempt to christen it as ‘Grooseland,’ I was blissfully unaware that I would end up encountering a boss that would not only frustrate me more than any other Zelda boss I’d encountered before, but who would be so frustrating to me that I’d put the game down for a solid 6 months: Demise.
I’ll admit, the first sight of the Imprisoned made me laugh. I was too caught up in his silly avocado-like appearance and his big squishy toes to take him seriously. And so, when he inevitably walloped me nearly to death, I was surprised, and not in a good way. After I finally succeeded in that tedious fight, I was tempted to put the game down for a while. This didn’t end up happening until the next time I fought the Imprisoned, at which point I put the game down and had to summon the will to get through it over a period of weeks. There was nothing I wanted to do less than fight the Imprisoned’s feet! As a result, this process repeated itself once more before my third showdown with him.
Having watched playthroughs of the game, I was, however, eagerly looking forward to battling Demise in his final, true form. The second phase always looked incredible to me! Nevertheless, this fight was doomed to end in the same way that my fights with the Imprisoned had done; with me quitting the game and refusing to pick it up again for an extended period of time.
The final fight had been particularly frustrating (though I did enjoy it!) — I had prepared potions, I had the Potion Medal, plus two Sacred Shields (I refused to fight the Imprisoned another three times to get the Hylian Shield, thank you very much!) — and yet I still failed. In despair, I quit the game, and didn’t pick it up again for about 6 months.
Before I returned to try once more, I heard about a somewhat obscure trick for the final Demise fight: that Link could use his bug net to bounce Demise’s lightning back at him. It was such a silly concept, I immediately wanted to try it.
And it really worked!
Having now gotten the hang of the controls (which took me an embarrassingly long time to get to grips with, and which was probably one of the reasons for my failure), I was able to knock the lightning back with the net, stun Demise enough to damage him, and eventually I got to see for myself the epic moment Link plunged the Master Sword through Demise’s chest, catching lightning as he did so.
The excitement and sheer relief I felt was palpable. I was overjoyed that I had finally overcome such a formidable and frustrating foe, that I had just beat my second ever Zelda game, and that I finally got to see the ending of the game for myself. Most of all, I was just so proud of myself for picking the game back up and finishing what I started, otherwise I would never have known such triumph. After all, having courage and not giving up when things get difficult is what Link always does, and so taking inspiration from him cannot be a bad thing, especially when it got me results beyond what I’d anticipated 6 months ago.
